Hi all!
I'd like to hear about an experience you have had with your Spitfire
that not only was some sort of event (breakdowns, learned something new,
met someone special in an odd situation, etc.) but taught you something
about your Spit or Triumphs in general.
I'll give two of mine for examples:
I was in the process of delivering a pizza for Domino's when I lived in
Lake Charles, LA back in the '80's. I had just turned onto the street
the customer lived on when I heard an abrupt puffing hissy sound and
smoke just boiled out from under the bonnet and under the dash inside
the car (the top was down as always). I threw the car at the curb,
leaped out and yanked the bonnet up (I think I leaped over the bonnet to
get to the second latch, but I don't have much recollection of doing it
-- I moved FAST). There was a fire on my battery! I hadn't thought
about carrying a fire extinguisher, but had a handy towel (shades of
Hitchhiker's Guide) I beat the flames out with. It turned out that the
heater cable had crossed the corner of the battery and had melted
through into the first cell, causing the fire and the hissy noise. The
pizza was late and the customer made me give them the $3 for it. They
must not have had experience with Triumphs before. I learned to make
sure everything under the hood went in its proper place and to not let
cables and wires come near places where they might cause problems.
Second story, also to do with fire: I was trying to get Tristan (my race
Spit) started in the driveway at my McKinney, TX apartment in the later
evening (it was almost dark) a couple of years ago. He was being really
cranky, and was having a hard time starting. He'd catch and backfire
and stall out (the timing turned out to be off). Finally, I got him to
catch and run a little and he gave me a huge backfire, and all of a
sudden these huge flames just shot up from the carburetor area. I
yanked the pin on my fire suppression system and slammed the knob down
and nothing happened. I was really freaked out and shot out of the car
(I still do not remember doing it or hitting the ground) and grabbed the
fire extinguisher out of the Jeep and gave the fire a blast. When the
puff of extinguisher material died down, I saw what had happened. Tris
has twin 1 1/2" SU's with velocity stacks, and the stacks each have
muffs that go over them to protect them from taking in dust and dirt. I
hadn't thought to remove them while trying to start a cranky car, and
when he backfired, it shot flame into the muffs, which were apparently
plastic or plastic-based, shooting flames to the sky when they caught
(quite vivid in the dark!). Then I had to clean up the extinguisher
mess and I still have mess where the plastic muffs dripped onto the
shock tower. Bleah. Taught me to A) remove all obstructions when
starting the car cold, B) keep the fire extinguisher handy, and C) learn
my equipment -- it turned out you have to pump the fire suppression
system. Probably a good thing I didn't know that then -- it would have
blasted the whole car, since it has outlet nozzles all over the place,
and I would have had one heck of a mess to clean up.
I hope some of your experiences have been better! Pass them along!
Keep Triumphing,
Susan :)
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